Wichita eagle., 1887-07-29
AN OLD FORTY MINER
TELLS HOW Boards WERE POPULAR
lied BY CALIFORNIA PIONEERS.
The Story of Gradual Emancipation
from the Razor-A Picturesque Lot of
Men in the Land of Gold-The Doctors


to the Rescue.
''The early gold seekers in California con-
ferred benefit upon the country-uncon-
sciously, it is true-which have never seen
mentioned, but for which the younger gen.
Grafton can hardly be grateful enough"
The speaker was one Of the old forty-niners;
he was speaking of the annual dinner
at the Associated Pioneers Of California,
which he had attended. "When I was q
young man." he. continued, ''no one in any
part Of the United States with which l was
acquainted was permitted to wear beard.
There was an unwritten law against it, which
was more strictly obeyed than the statutes
against murder or robbery. A man with a
full, flowing beard, such as may be seen any
where in a walk of five minutes, would have
been followed and hooted at by crowd Of
boys in any New England town: while a
mustache was an open confession that thu
wearer was a rowdy and a social outlaw.
The wearer would not have been admitted to
membership in any church, noT-unless he
was a military officer-received into any re-
spectacle circle. Side whiskers could be worn,
or chin whiskers; but the lines re drawn
against the complete thing or the -ha6ed up
per lip by a public opinion SO strong that it
seemed inmutable.
N THE LAND OF PROMISE.
1.-THE gold excitement broke out, and in
almost every town and village there were
some who caught the fever and started for
the land of promise. We had hard time of
It; the fortunate fellows just as hard time
as the unfortunate, except for the courage
that success brings. There was no leisure,
and little inducement for self adorment In
Al hon
observing the rules of our old civilized life,
and one of the first evidences of this was that
one after another we stopped shaving. 1t
took too much time, and our razors got dull,
or our bits of looking glass lost or broken;
and soon every mining camp on the coast was
filed with full bearded men.
SEariy in the tifties, the men who had left
wives and children or sweethearts at home,
and who had raked together few thousand
dollars, began to return; some to bring their
families back and others to pay of the mort
cages on their farms and remain We had
been free from the trammels of the old civil
ization long enough to be Indifferent to some
of its arbitrary rules. and then We were con-
ceited enough to think that our adventures
had given us the right to be recognized as
heroes, and didn't mind wearing a sort Of
us returned to our old homes with much the
same appearance that we had in tho mines.
ave were decidedly picturesque lot, I
suppose and wherever we went were imme-
diately recognized as returned gold diggers,
and received the respect among our old
neighbors that our supposititious wealth, alasI
only suppoSititious in many cases-command-
ed. In 30 very long time there were few
towns in y hich there were not several re-
turned Can ornians; and, as the novelty Of
full boards began to wear off, the real inn
provemenC which boards made in some men
was seen huge jawed, long Tipped men came
back absolutely handsome.
DOCTORS TO THE RESCUE
''Then he doctors entered the fied-young
men with weak lungs and bronchial troubles
seemed to he cured. At first the climate of /
California and the exposure of camp life OBJ |
tanned the credit, but after winter at home |
it was believed that the protection given by |
the beard should share the credit, and soon
many OF the physicians, especially in New |
England, advised their patients TO cease
shaving. The innovation now made its way
rapidly by the advice of the doctor was
as satisfactory an answer to all comments as
it is in re same part of the country when
OHe II tsSe-dG tdhiiio Ills Olbucio pcAoiS
dinner
at was some years, however, before the J
prejudice OF generations became weakened
that preachers could wear boards without
severe comment on the part of some mem-
bers of their congregations, if not secession
from their folds to those of shaver shepherds
1t is a tradition that the late Professor Stowe
adopted a shrewd device to rid himself of the
hated razor. He was delivering an id ess,
80 the story goes, on slavery, and rs he be-
came imprisoned with the subject he ex-
claimed: This curse must and will be ped
out; the day of freedom for all meI in our
land is coming, and razor shall not touch my
face until it dawns' He was probably one
of the first Congregational ministers to wear
hair on his lip.
s'When it became allowable for any who
chose to wear full beard, entire emancipa-
ton followed easily enough, and men beg an
to trim their boards to suit themselves, until
before long they could wear mustache> a,one
without causing remark. We old forty
miners created this revolution-we who came
home; and in the advantages to health, to
say nothing of the improvement of the neral
tone of community which is caused by the
overthrow of every senseless superstition, 1
think that in this we did more good than did
the gold we brought home. New York
Tribune